QS World University Ranking 2018: University of Malaya (UM) Leaps to Greater Heights, Placing at 114

The QS World University rankings is one of the most widely read annual publications of the world’s university rankings. In the 2018 rankings, the University of Malaya (UM) is placed at 114th position; a notable improvement from the previous year’s ranking of 133rd. With this, UM has broken its own record five times consecutively, and has moved up 53 ranks since 2014. The UM community is pleased with the new achievement, and the fact that UM remains as the nation’s top university in terms of the overall position.

Universities are judged by multiple criterions, which form part of six key performance markers. The assessing organization, Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), takes into consideration the university’s academic reputation, citations per faculty, employer reputation, faculty students, international faculties, and international students that are enrolled into the university.

The University of Malaya’s Acting Vice Chancellor Professor Awang Bulgiba stated that three of these key performances, namely the university’s academic reputation, employer reputation, and research-related indicators were the major contributors to UM’s improved performance. He also added that UM has been putting in great efforts over the past few years to strengthen its research, internationalisation, and marketing. He believes that those efforts are now showing positive results.

During a press conference on 8th of June at the Ministry of Education’s (MOE) office, the Minister of Higher Education, YB Dato’ Seri Idris Jusoh, highlighted that UM’s ranking in the QS World University Ranking means that UM is amongst the top one percent of the best research universities in the world. With an overall score of 60.8 percent, it has achieved the highest score amongst other Malaysian universities.

The UM community is proud of this achievement and we believe this success would not be possible without the strong support and collaborations from strategic partners around the globe.